Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

Why do people buy so much food that they throw out? Why is there such adisregard for food? If you could turn that into dollars, people would certainly havea concern about how much they were throwing away [Local governmentEmployee, Melbourne].People living in cities often face a ‘no time’ or ‘too busy’ culture. The pressuresassociated with social life and work may pose a risk to the development of urbanagriculture, simply because it becomes ‘too hard’:It’s just such a complex issue because people probably would like the idea ofhaving local fresh organic produce but when it comes to the fact that they need toput the effort in they have all these other commitments on their time: they havekids, they have work, they want to watch their favourite TV show - and I think youjust have to have a culture change, not only on an individual level, you’re going tohave to have it on a business level as well [Micro farmer, Gold Coast].This leads to another aspect of the cultural barrier which participants identified awidespread lack of awareness of the key issues and problems concerning the foodsystem, and engagement with them:There is a real lack of awareness of the need to change. Most of the population isnot aware. People need to be more uncomfortable, or have barriers to actionremoved, such as cost incentives. It’s really troubling that so many people don’thave basic food growing and preparation skills. And this applies across the widerpopulation – we’re lacking basic cooking, and food preparation, and preservingskills. There’s a psychological shift that needs to happen, for people in general tovalue food growing as a worthy thing to do. People forget that there’s a farmerbehind every meal they eat [Backyard gardener and Permaculturalist,Melbourne].Many interviewees commented that some of the difficulties around urban agricultureare related to the fact that most people are simply disconnected from the naturalenvironment:Look, we are so far removed from growing our own food and being self-sufficientthat people think that it’s disgusting that you grow your own food. Like, I’ll bring inmy lettuce or something from home, I’ve had comments from work saying ‘oh,bugs and all’ you know ‘oh there’s a bit of dirt on it’. People are so far removedfrom that…people don’t understand that growing your own food is a very valuablething to do and gives you a sense of pride, they see it as something that only dirtyhippies would do [NGO Employee, Gold Coast].Lack of knowledge and information can also be an internal barrier, as even whenpeople are interested in growing their own food, they often do not seem to know how toget started:Most of them are totally ignorant. They haven’t got a clue about farmingorganically… It’s quite fascinating and really quite amazing. Yeah, a few peoplethink they know a bit but in practise… It’s a difficult thing for people to grasp, theythink that you can just go from chemical to organic and there’s a similar solution,it’s just an organic solution [Organic farmer, Gold Coast].Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change 138